Nippon Steel's president Shoji Muneoka said on Tuesday the firm expands the output reduction to more than 2 million tonnes in the second half year to March 2009 compared with the original plan. The firm expands the output reduction by more than 1 million tonnes under slower steel demand while the firm announced around 1 million tonnes of output reduction last month. Mr. Muneoka said the firm could reduce the output more depending on the market while the firm decided the additional output reduction based on estimated steel demand through March 2009. Mr. Muneoka said the output level would be low level in fiscal 2009 starting April 2009 when the demand shows no sign for recovery in short period of time.
Mr. Muneoka said at the monthly press conference as the chairman of Japan Iron and Steel Federation Nippon Steel's output reduction will be around 2-2.2 million tonnes for the second half year compared with the original plan. He said the demand decreases sharply for automobile industry while the domestic building activity is still low level and the demand shows sign to decease for construction machinery and shipbuilding. He said the firm's output reduction is to meet estimated demand for domestic industry and export mainly for East Asia. However, he said the firm wouldn't produce for inventory and indicates additional output reduction depending on the market.
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